De Havilland a crucial cog in the Magpies’ machine
Will De Havilland’s presence in the Maidenhead United backline appears to be an important one. They don’t always win or pick up points when he’s playing, but they rarely do when he’s not.
On Saturday he and captain Alan Massey marshalled the backline brilliantly, and ensured for the most part, Woking were restricted to half chances or were rushed into shanking their better ones.
The Cards came forward at every opportunity on Saturday, buoyed by their 3-0 mid-week win over Oldham Athletic and, had they showed a little more composure in front of goal, would surely have put the Magpies to the sword before half-time.
However, the likes of De Havilland made life as difficult as possible for Woking’s front line who never once looked assured or confident when chances dropped their way. Jermaine Anderson skewed badly wide of the target under pressure in the first half, while Padraig Amond lifted a glorious second half chance over the woodwork.
In contrast, Maidenhead took the one very good chance they created, Emile Acquah throwing off his marker to turn home Ashley Nathaniel-George’s cross unopposed.
It was one of the only pieces of real incisive play from the Magpies all afternoon, and the front line deserves credit for carving through the Cards’ backline so simply.
However, this was a win built on the strength of the home side’s defence, and doggedness of its midfield, typified by man-of-thematch Ryan Upward, who ran himself into the ground for the cause.
Speaking after the final whistle, De Havilland said: “Going up the hill first half, is always hard, that’s why we always like going down the hill first. But we dug in, withstood a lot of their pressure, and limited them to a few chances.
“When we got in at 0-0, we had the confidence that we could do this going down the hill.
“We all believed it was our turn to put on the pressure and see if they could handle it. The pressure paid off with a good goal for Emile.
“There have been ups and downs, but we’ve been close in every game. Things just haven’t fallen our way. Every defeat has been by the odd goal, losing 1-0, but today, things went our way a little bit more and that’s what you need, a little bit of luck sometimes.
“We did really well, maintained the pressure and continued believing. We said at the start of the season that we need to make our home form count, that’s going to be important, and so far, we’ve done well with that and have made it a tough place to come.”
Gateshead travel down from the North East for a 3pm kick-off in front of the BT Sport cameras this Saturday and De Havilland is hopeful the Magpies can register back-to-back league wins at York Road for the second time this season.
“It’s a long journey for them so we’ve got to start fast like we did today,” he said. “We’ve just got to put them under pressure and see if they can handle it. We’ll try to get a lead and then see if we can hold onto it.”